For what it’s worth, Judi has worked closely with all three men over the course of her career, which skyrocketed when Harvey’s production company, Miramax, acquired the 1997 movie Mrs. Brown, which was her first leading film role.
Then, in 2001, Judi starred alongside Kevin in the 2001 film The Shipping News, and he was a source of comfort for her after her husband, Michael Williams, died that same year.
As you probably know, Harvey is currently in prison after he was sentenced to 23 years for rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020. In a separate case in Los Angeles, Harvey was sentenced to an additional 16 years after he was found guilty of rape and sexual assault in December 2022.
Meanwhile, Kevin was accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple men in 2017, which he vehemently denied. He was found not guilty of committing multiple sexual offenses against four men in 2023. However, he is set to face three more claims of sexual assault in civil court in London next year.
And in a new interview with the Radio Times, 91-year-old Judi triggered scrutiny after she admitted that she and Kevin still text, and said that she imagines Harvey has “done his time.”
Back in 2019, Judi told the same publication that she believes Kevin and Harvey’s work should be separated from their alleged offenses, saying of Kevin at the time: “Are we going to negate 10 years at the Old Vic and everything that he did, how wonderful he’s been in all those films?”
“Are we just not going to see all those films that Harvey produced?” she continued. “You cannot deny somebody a talent. You might as well never look at a Caravaggio painting. You might as well never have gone to see Noel Coward.”
And in the new interview, it is explained that Judi has been a Quaker ever since she attended a Quaker boarding school as a teenager. A Quaker is a member of a Christian-rooted movement from 17th-century England known as the Religious Society of Friends. The movement focuses on living out values such as peace, integrity, and equality — with forgiveness being a core value of the Quaker belief system.
When asked if her Quaker beliefs mean that she has been able to find forgiveness for both men, Judi replied: “Kevin has been exonerated, and I hear from Kevin, we text. I saw a bit of film of Harvey walking with two sticks, and you think: ‘Well…’”
“I knew Harvey, and I knew him well and worked with him, and I had none of that experience — very fortunately for me,” she went on. “I imagine he’s done his time… I don’t know, to me it’s personal — forgiveness. I just think…” Radio Times writes: “her voice trails away and we leave it at that.”
The reporter then notes: “To lighten the tone I ask whether she has a celebrity crush,” which leads to Judi expressing her admiration for Johnny Depp, who she worked with on a Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, as well as on Chocolat, and Murder on the Orient Express. In Pirates, Johnny’s character bites an earring off Judi’s character’s ear, and she tells the reporter that she has the earring framed in her home.
“I had to sit in a carriage in Greenwich, and they said: ‘Johnny Depp will jump in through the window, give you a kiss and jump out,’” she recalled. “He jumped in, but he didn’t give me a kiss, he went for my ear and took my earring off with his teeth. And I said [disappointed voice]: ‘Is that it?’ and that is actually kept in.”
“So, was that a bit of a moment for you?” the interviewer asked, writing Judi’s response as follows: “‘Well, of course Johnny Depp, he’s…’ she fans herself.”
I’m sure you know that Johnny has faced his share of allegations over the years. In 2020, a British court ruled that it was “substantially true” for the tabloid newspaper, the Sun, to refer to Johnny as a “wife beater” after they published a story that referenced his ex-wife Amber Heard’s testimony that he had abused her several times between 2013 and 2016.
Needless to say, Judi’s comments about these men have not gone down well, with many taking particular issue with her saying that she didn’t personally have a negative experience with Harvey. One person wrote: “When she worked with Spacey, she was a 67-year-old woman. His victims were young men and boys. When she started working with Weinstein, she was 63. His victims were young women with no power. The lack of awareness of either of those facts is a problem for me.”
As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!